Keeping the blogosphere posted on the goings on of the world of submarines since late 2004... and mocking and belittling general foolishness wherever it may be found. Idaho's first and foremost submarine blog. (If you don't like something on this blog, please E-mail me; don't call me at home.)

Monday, March 05, 2007

Submarine Week On The Military Channel

For those of you who get The Military Channel (it's Ch. 287 on DirecTV), this week is "Sub Week". Every night at 8 p.m. ET/PT, they'll be showing a submarine-themed show, starting tonight with the premiere of "Top Ten Submarines". The 10 "finalists" are shown in this slideshow; while I'm personally inclined to pick the Seawolf-class subs (since those are the ones I know best, having been initial manning Eng on the last two), my guess is that they'll end up putting either USS Nautilus (SSN 571) -- the first "true" submarine -- or the Gato-class boats in the #1 slot. Unless, of course, the slideshow is already in the order they've picked, in which case they incorrectly selected the Type VII U-Boat for the top of the list. While it was undoubtedly an efficient weapon, I don't think that a boat design that had about 80% of its copies lost in combat should be considered the "best" submarine.

Update 0702 06 March: It turns out the slideshow I linked to above does put the subs in their countdown order. It's hard to compare WWII subs to other submarines that haven't been proved in combat -- while the Seawolf-class boats are clearly the "best" submarines in individual combat capability, we'll (hopefully) never find out in actual combat if they live up to their capabilities.

7 Comments:

Byron said...

BH, I think it should be included. More to the point, if you look at the ranking based on the subs impact on it's times and it's potential enemies, you have to give the nod to the Type VII. This sub caused enormous resources to be pulled to the Atlantic just to combat it, including B-24s to cover the GUIK gaps. This sub forced high speed development of new technology like radar, HF/DF, airborne high-powered searchlights, CAM ships, and CVEs. And even with all those resources, Britain came within a hair of being strangled still.

DH, I think US subs are the best in the world...but in WW2, the Germans had a pretty damn good thing going. And the point has been made by others, that were it not for Ultra, the U-boats would have won their battle

Great job on the posts. I love reading them everyday. Anyway, I think I read that you were the Eng on the 22 and rode the 21 on her ORSE in '97. I was a junior nuke MM on "The Wolf" during that time. I kind of remember you, but I was the Lower Level watch in Chief Harrahill's watchsection. I also live in Idaho (Twin Falls).Keep up the great work.MM2/SS

Yes, they picked the TYPE VII as the top boat. I agree with Byron on this and I am OK with it, but if that was the top one, then the Gato class should have been number 2 based on what they did to Japan. There were some boats that should have made the top 10, but did not IMHO. Perhaps my point of view is different.

About Me

I'm Joel Kennedy -- a married, 50-something year old retired submarine officer and esophageal cancer survivor with three kids who has finally made the transition to civilian life. Politically, I'm a Radical Moderate. (If you don't like something on this blog, please E-mail me. Don't call me at home.)